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A disciplinary summary from the web page of the California Bar Journal:

[An attorney] was suspended for one year, stayed, placed on one year of probation
with a 60-day actual suspension and was ordered to take the MPRE within
one year. The order took effect Feb. 25, 2009.

[The attorney] stipulated to six counts of misconduct in his representation of a
client in his divorce and a beef with his neighbors. In lieu of
attorney fees, he accepted two Japanese military pieces, a helmet and a
hand sword guard. Without obtaining an expert appraisal, [the attorney] and
his client agreed the sword was valued at $1,500 and the helmet at
$2,500 to $3,500. [He] applied the value of the helmet to his
attorney fees and the value of the sword guard to the divorce. He did
not advise the client to seek independent legal advice or put the terms
of the arrangement in writing.

His client won a judgment and
attorney fees in the neighbor dispute, and [the attorney] was to receive
their payments. He did not notify his client that he received funds and
did not deposit the money in his client trust account, nor did he
disburse the funds to his client. He also did not begin collection
efforts when the neighbors failed to make their monthly payments.

The
client then hired another lawyer to collect on the judgment, but when
he contacted the neighbors’ lawyer, he was told the money had been
paid. [The attorney] did not pay his client the funds despite a request to
do so. The client then sued [him] and won a default judgment for
$4,000.

In the divorce case, [his] bill showed a $633 credit due the client, but he never refunded the money.

[The attorney] stipulated that he failed to perform legal services competently, refund
unearned fees, deposit funds in a client trust account, notify a client
of the receipt of funds or promptly pay out those funds, and he entered
into a business transaction with a client without fully disclosing the
terms of the transaction.

In mitigation, he cooperated with the bar’s investigation and he had no prior discipline record.